The Wellington Lions arrested a two-match slide in summery conditions at Waikato Stadium.
Their 21-14 victory all but sealed a home ITM Cup Championship semifinal and rubbed out Waikato's hopes of sneaking into the Premiership playoffs.
The Mooloos are now facing a three-way relegation scrap with Counties Manukau and Manawatu. They did score one well-worked try off a scrum to replacement centre Chauncy Edwardson, but could not get enough going in the face of a two-pronged openside offence by the Lions via impressive and unheralded No 7 Greg Foe and No 8 and skipper Ardie Savea.
The Waikato 9-10-12 axis of Brad Weber, Damian McKenzie and Jordan Payne all went well, but the pack, while full of talent, lacks a Jeremy Thrush, a 30-year-old hard nut who can take control of the forward exchanges. McKenzie did kick a penalty goal to secure a bonus point on fulltime. That may yet prove decisive as the ITM Cup enters the final fortnight of the regular season.
Waikato are young, hungry, but just a little scattergun. Their coach Sean Botherway spoke about them being "too panicky" at times. They will be a threat in 2016, but not this season.
Wellington, missing Cory Jane and Brad Shields, were not roaring on all cylinders, but they did register the seventh win by a Championship union over a Premiership side in 2015.
Thrush scored the opening try, galloping over from 25m and showing some startling acceleration. The high-stepping blindside flanker Vaea Fifita made a superb break to set up his hooker Leni Apisai for the second.
"A win's a win. After (the loss to) Otago, we wanted to focus on this game and come out with the W. We had good opportunity in the first half, slipped a bit in the second, but our defence was good," said Savea. Both sides lamented a plethora of turnovers which hindered their attacking fluency.
"Wellington really controlled the middle part of the game, but we allowed them to get away to too big a lead," said Waikato skipper Weber.
Mooloo blindside flanker James Tucker evoked memories of the 1992 'Hand of Purvey' by raking a scrum ball back with his left mitt. He got away with it, as former Waikato front-rower Graham Purvis did at Eden Park in the 1992 NPC semifinal against Auckland.
Next up for Waikato is Counties Manukau in Hamilton on Friday night, while Wellington have the shortest turnaround permissible, just three days until they host Hawke's Bay in a top of the table Championship contest on Wednesday night.
Wellington 21 (Jeremy Thrush, Leni Apisai tries; Jason Woodward con, 3 pen) Waikato 14 (Chauncy Edwardson try; Damian McKenzie 3 pen) Halftime: 16-6
- by Campbell Burnes
